YouTube, Environmental Context, and Blue Paper

YouTube has many how-to lessons out there on subjects that Cardinal used to do. Things like using power tools, tuning up cars, using office equipment, even how to make a tie. I recently looked at a few, thinking about how they compared with our old stuff. It’s apples and oranges, 1970s vs. 2009, but still they stirred up some rambling thoughts.

What if Cardinal had changed its instructional unit “How to Make a Tie” to “How to Make a Tie Knot”? Would students have learned something more practical for every day life than how to sew together a half-assed tie? I wish I had suggested this thirty years ago. Maybe Sales could have unloaded more units.



There is something else the tie video makes me think of. What if we had photographed more of our instructional stuff in some sort of environmental context? The tie guy’s teaching us from a dressing room. We shot “How to Make a Tie” on the floor on blue background paper. Which invites better attention?

We did lessons on things like how to turn brake drums, run circular saws, and build brick walls, all within the confines of our studio. Almost invariably, we shot against the blue paper background.

While the blue background certainly did present objects (and trolls) clearly, it was somehow detached and cold. Instructional things happened within a type of reference-less void. Even with Howard the Hand Model’s hands in the frame, something human was lacking.

What if we had shot the Carburetor Overhaul series, for example, in a real world scene? Looking at today’s how-to’s, I see that our old stuff (its quality and effectiveness in training aside) was presented in kind of a rigid format. I don’t think this is entirely due to the restrictions of 35mm still photography and a budget. A lot of times we simply had to do what was expedient and within the company standards.

This YouTube is at the other end of the spectrum. The video sort of lets it all hang out, maybe too much so, but it’s fun to look at. Can a student really learn from it? I don’t know, but it gets a high 'place in reality' score. Look closely...is that a Chock Full o’Nuts coffee can filled with nails just out of frame on the right?



We tried some test shots at Cardinal with the carburetors on a plain pine-like workbench surface (without real-life clutter) and the contrast was lousy. I wanted something more ‘mechanics friendly’ but we ended up using a yellow background paper. It worked, but to me it still had the same old empty void look.

Here are two shots with environmental context. The first shot is from “How to Properly Wash your Hands.” Warntz and I shot it on location in Cardinal's ladies room.

The second is from the “How to Make Appointments” lesson. I can’t recall who the model wearing the nurse's hat was. She may have been our receptionist.


(Even Cardinal's decor at the front desk area had that same neutralizing color, but in this case it was IBM blue, because they used to own the building.)

These Medical Assistant programs were shot when we converted a mixed bag series of 'career programs' done in rough fashion by some educational group in the Midwest. A lot of the lessons were cretin level, like “How to Fry an Egg.” I don’t think we ever got around to converting that one and measuring its objectives. Too bad. We could have put it in the real world and shot it at one of Jones’ favorite breakfast & beer joints downtown.

There was one other lesson in the Medical Assistant series that we struggled to produce with any style or appropriate environmental context: “How to Take Oral and Rectal Temperatures.” We used a live model for the first part, and tried using a toy doll for part 2. Eventually we sent the storyboards to the Art Dept. and said, “here, please make sketches.”